It was no party: With Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes looking on, new Time Inc. Editor-in-Chief Martha Nelson gave some fairly pointed jabs about the operation’s ups and downs as it prepares to spin off into an independent company for the first time in 23 years.

“It’s been exactly 100 days since I started this job,” she told an assembly of top managing editors and other senior staffers gathered for the annual Luce Awards ceremony.

“It’s fair to say there have been more surprises, turns and plot twists than an entire season of ‘Homeland,’” Nelson said. “Every week — a new cliff hanger.”

Nelson is emerging as an in-house cheerleader for the spin-off, in part because incumbent Time Inc. CEO Laura Lang, who announced her departure already, is widely seen as a lame duck.

Nelson introduced both Bewkes and Lang to virtually no applause from the assembled editors, but there was sustained applause for a surprise appearance by retired Editor-in-Chief Norman Pearlstine, now chief content officer at Bloomberg.

In her remarks, Nelson said, “We believe, with considerable evidence, that our brands define authority in journalism. When we leave Time Warner and fly on our own again, that’s not going to change. I’m ready. And I know you’re ready,” she said.

To guffaws from the crowd she said, “If you have any questions for Jeff Bewkes, he’s sitting right here.”

At the ceremony, 15 magazine winners were announced, including Outstanding Story by Fortune’s Mina Kimes (now with Bloomberg) for “Bad to the Bone,” about the unauthorized use of a bone cement, which killed patients; Entertainment Weekly for Best Cover with Tina Fey gracing the weekly; SI.com for a video on sports underdogs featuring tiny Ishpeming High School in Michigan; and People for its reporting on the Newtown, Conn., school massacre.

Time won “Magazine of the Year.” Time Managing Editor Rick Stengel said, “I think it’s a relief we won’t have to carry Time Warner on our backs anymore.” Bewkes gave a strained smile. As one insider said, “I’m sure this isn’t his favorite event of the year.”

Advance notice

Conde Nast had a robust first quarter, with ad pages up 3.3 percent, but that has not stemmed more signs of trimming in other units of the Newhouse family’s far-flung Advance Publications empire.

The American City Business Journals subsidiary of Advance recently spun off The Sporting News, which it only acquired in 2006, into a a new joint venture with publicly traded London-based digital sports video company Perform Group.

According to the latest available numbers, the Sporting News was losing $5.3 million a year on gross assets of only $4.6 million while Perform’s US operation, which markets sports video highlights and analysis, was making $100,000 on gross assets of $1.7 million.

The Sporting News halted its print edition at the end of last year and went all digital.

Jeff Price, the president and publisher of the Sporting News, who will stay on board post-merger, said the move from print to all digital was admittedly a “rough transition.” But he insisted it was “absolutely the right move for the Sporting News.”

At the time it went all digital, it was the No. 33 website in the sports category. Last month, according to comScore, it was No. 11, with 9.7 million unique visitors. Still, critics point out that half of the traffic consists of referrals from links on AOL, and that arrangement could be nearing an end. The new company declined to comment on the length of the contract.

Price predicts the combined company will jump to No. 5 sports site in the country with the addition of Perform’s US operations.

“We think it will be disrupting the sports category, creating a legitimate alternative with scale and premium content to ESPN and traditional sports broadcasters,” said Price.

Of course, the merger was not accomplished without some blood-letting. Fourteen editorial staffers out of 50 were cut at Sporting News in Charlotte, NC; Editor-in Chief Garry Howard survived.

Price said it is in the process of rapidly beefing up its in-house ad sales staff from 11, to 22. So far, it has added Michael Stillman from Sports Illustrated to be the new VP of ad sales on the West Coast, where it is opening its first LA office and Tom McGurn from Bleacher Report.

CORRECTION: In the April 10 Media Ink on potential candidates to lead Time Inc as CEO, the wrong job titles were reported for two rumored to be in the running. Former Time magazine President Eileen Naughton is now vice president of global sales at Google. Howard Averill is the Time Inc. chief financial officer.